The invention relates to the discovery and asexual propagation of a new and distinct variety of kiwifruit, Actinidia chinensis ‘Y374’, as herein described and illustrated. The new kiwifruit variety ‘Y374’ was selected from a population of seedlings derived from crossing two kiwifruit selections A17 (unpatented), the female, and R4 (unpatented), the non-fruiting male, using controlled pollination in the course of a planned kiwifruit variety breeding program. The cross was made in October 1999 by Donald Alfred Skelton at Rangiriri, New Zealand.
The new kiwifruit variety ‘Y374’ may be distinguished from its parent, A17, in that A17 has flat sided fruit, while the fruit of ‘Y374’ is rounded, A17 has a strongly sharp protruding stylar end, while the fruit of ‘Y374’ has a rounded to slightly blunt protruding stylar end, and A17's fruit matures late in the season, while the fruit of ‘Y374’ matures medium early (i.e., late March to May in New Zealand). The new kiwifruit variety ‘Y374’ may be distinguished from its parent, R4, in that R4 is a non-fruiting male while ‘Y374’ is a fruit-bearing female. In addition, R4 has bark of a Greyed-green color (RHS 193B), while ‘Y374’ has bark colored Grey-brown (RHS 199B). The new kiwifruit variety ‘Y374’ may be distinguished from presenhtly available cultivars such as, for example, Actinidia chinenis variety ‘Hort16A’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 11,066), by the following distinguishing characteristics: the fruit of the new kiwifruit variety ‘Y374’ matures earlier than the fruit of ‘Hort16A’, and the fruir of the new kiwifruit variety ‘Y374’ expresses a medium-yellow flesh color.
The new kiwifruit variety ‘Y374’ may be distinguished from other presently available kiwifruit varieties featuring medium-yellow flesh fruit such as, for example, ‘Y363’ (unpatented), ‘D15’ (unpatented), ‘X273’ (unpatented), and ‘Skelton A19’ (unpatented), by the following distinguishing characteristics: the fruit shape of the new variety ‘Y374’ is obovoid compared with that of ‘Y363’, which is oblong. The fruit size of the new variety ‘Y374’ is large compared with that of ‘D15’, which is medium, and ‘X273’, which is small. Furthermore, the beak of the new variety ‘Y374’ is very small compared with that of ‘Skelton A19’, which is apparent.
Asexual propagation of the new kiwifruit variety ‘Y374’ by grafting, in Rangiriri, New Zealand, shows that the unique combination of characteristics of the variety come true to form and are established and transmitted through succeeding propagation. In order to obtain true-to-type clones of the initial plant, asexually propagated plants were obtained by grafting dormant buds from the original seedling onto Actinidia chinensis and Actinidia deliciosa rootstocks.